INITIAL ASSESSMENT
1. Initial clinical approach to the patient
2. Assessing exposure to a traumatic event and establishing a diagnosis of ASD or PTSD
A. The person has been exposed to a traumatic event in which both of the following were
present:
1. the person experienced, witnessed, or was confronted with an event or events that
involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical
integrity of self or others
2. the person’s response involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror
B. Either while experiencing or after experiencing the distressing event, the individual has
three (or more) of the following dissociative symptoms:
1. a subjective sense of numbing, detachment, or absence of emotional
responsiveness
2. a reduction in awareness of his or her surroundings (e.g., “being in a daze”)
3. derealization
4. depersonalization
5. dissociative amnesia (i.e., inability to recall an important aspect of the trauma)
C. The traumatic event is persistently reexperienced in at least one of the following ways:
recurrent images, thoughts, dreams, illusions, flashback episodes, or a sense of reliving
the experience; or distress on exposure to reminders of the traumatic event.